Demonstration Lesson by Rebecca Bowers
SJVWP Summer Institute 2011
The Mysteries Within The Craft of the Short Story Standards:
8th Grade Writing - 2.0 Writing Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)
Students write narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive essays of at least 500-700 words in each genre. Student writing demonstrates a command of standard American English and the research, organizational, and drafting strategies outlined in Writing Standard 1.0. Students will: 2.1 Write biographies, autobiographies, short stories, or narratives:
a. relate a clear, coherent incident, event, or situation by using well-chosen details.
b. reveal the significance of, or the writer’s attitude about, the subject.
c. employ narrative and descriptive strategies (e.g., relevant dialogue, specific action, physical/ background description, comparison/contrast). Sequence of Activities: 1) Questions: (pair/share; whole-class question/response) What is a short story? What important elements does a short story consist of? 2) Introduction to Harris Burdick (show book, pictures, and read introduction) 3) Student sample/map (picture not given to students as an option for their stories) 4) Gallery walk (Students view pictures, select one, and write caption in their journals) 5) Story map 6) Review student sample (suggested structure – usage of dialogue, description, etc.) 7) Introductions (hook your reader with dialogue, description, an anecdote, etc.) 8) Share introductions with partners 9) Volunteers read aloud
Objectives:
Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of the short story by composing their own. They will use specific plot elements and techniques they’ve learned such as well-chosen details, physical description, dialogue, setting, conflict, character development, etc.
Rationale:
In 8th grade, students need to be able to: - evaluate the structural elements of the plot, the plot’s development, and the way in which conflicts are (or are not) addressed and resolved (R 3.2). - compare and contrast motivations and reactions of literary characters (R 3.3). - analyze the relevance of the setting to the mood, tone, and meaning of the text (R 3.4).
Once a student is able to identify and analyze these specific reading standards (those listed above), they may then apply them to their own writing. Composing their own short stories will allow for creativity, while also demonstrating their knowledge of each short story element. Their finished piece must include a solid plot, an identifiable conflict, three-dimensional characters, a strong setting, a climax, and some kind of resolution. They must also include strong adjectives, adverbs, similes and/or metaphors. Coherency, structure, dialogue, and description, are also developed in this writing process and help the students become better writers (as seen in the writing standards listed on first pg).
Allowing students to use a picture with a caption to generate story ideas reinforces the fact that students don’t always need to have a story to write about before they write. Sometimes the best stories come when we allow ourselves to experiment. “Material and ideas for essays, poems, short stories, and articles will grow that way – like flowers on blank, barren walls… but you must free your writing to make it possible… think through writing rather than always before you write (Ballenger and Lane, 1996). The reason we suggest writing from someone else’s image is that it often liberates your own imagination to take a ride on an image that didn’t come from you. It gives you practice in relinquishing control and letting the image generate material. Because it is not your image, you’ll have less need to own it or control it, and you’ll have fewer preconceptions about it. You’ll probably find yourself more receptive to allowing meaning to develop from it rather than imposing meaning on it (Elbow and Belanoff, 1989).
Supplementary Materials: Ballenger, Bruce, and Barry Lane. Discovering the Writer Within: 40 Days to More Imaginative Writing. Ohio: Writer’s Digest, 1996. Print. Elbow, Peter, and Pat Belanoff. A Community of Writers: A Workshop Course in Writing. New York: McGraw- Hill, Inc. 1989. Print. Gallagher, Kelly. Teaching Adolescent Writers. Maine: Stenhouse Publishers, 2006. Print. Van Allsburg. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984. Print. Introduction to the Portfolio Edition of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg
In 1984, I wrote the following as an introduction to The Mysteries of Harris Budick:
I first saw the drawings in this book a year ago, in the home of a man named Peter Wenders. Though Mr. Wenders is retired now, he once worked for a children's book publisher, choosing the stories and pictures that would be turned into books.
Thirty years ago a man called at Peter Wenders's office, introducing himself as Harris Burdick. Mr. Burdick explained that he had written fourteen stories and had drawn many pictures for each one. He'd brought with him just one drawing from each story, to see if Wenders liked his work.
Peter Wenders was fascinated by the drawings. He told Burdick he would like to read the stories that went with them as soon as possible. The artist agreed to bring the stories the next morning. He left the fourteen drawings with Wenders. But he did not return the next day. Or the day after that. Harris Burdick was never heard from again. Over the years, Wenders tried to find out who Burdick was and what had happened to him, but he discovered nothing. To this day Harris Burdick remains a complete mystery.
His disappearance is not the only mystery left behind. What were the stories that went with these drawings? There are some clues. Burdick had written a title and caption for each picture. When I told Peter Wenders how difficult it was to look at the drawings and their captions without imagining a story, he smiled and left the room. He returned with a dust-covered cardboard box. Inside were dozens of stories, all inspired by the Burdick drawings. They'd been written years ago by Wender's children and their friends.
I spent the rest of my visit reading these stories. They were remarkable, some bizarre, some funny, some downright scary. In the hope that other children will be inspired by them, the Burdick drawings are reproduced here for the first time.
Over the past twelve years I have received hundreds of Burdick stories written by children and adults. These efforts show that the words and pictures of Mr. Burdick are indeed inspirational. Classroom teachers and aspiring writers have expressed their desire for larger reproductions of Mr. Burdick's pictures. To that end, this portfolio has been produced. There is, however, another reason for this edition.
Peter Wenders and I were certain that the publication of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick would lead to the discovery of information about Mr. Burdick. Ten years passed without a single clue surfacing. Then, in 1994, I received a letter from a Mr. Daniel Hirsch of North Carolina. He described himself as a dealer in antique books and shared with me the following story.
In 1963 he learned of a collection of books being offered for sale in Bangor, Maine. These books were located in the library of a grand but rundown Victorian home. Mr. Hirsch remembers learning that the owner of the house, an elderly woman, had died recently, leaving the house and its contents to the local Animal Rescue League.
Impressed with the collection he found, Mr. Hirsch purchased the entire library. This included a large mirror whose wooden frame was decorated with carved portraits of characters from Through the Looking Glass.
Two years ago, this mirror, still in the possession of Mr. Hirsch, fell from the wall of his bookshop and cracked. Removing the shards of glass, Mr. Hirsch made a remarkable discovery. Neatly concealed between the mirror and its wooden back was the drawing of the "Young Magician" that is reproduced here.
This drawing is identical in size and technique to Burdick's other pictures. Like those, it is unsigned and has a title and caption written in the margin at the bottom. The title on this piece identifies it as another picture from the story "Missing in Venice." I have no doubts regarding its authenticity.
Unfortunately, Mr. Hirsch, who has an uncanny memory for the names and locations of the books in his shop, cannot remember the details of his trip to Bangor in 1963. In fact, he is no longer certain the old Victorian house was in Bangor. However, he is certain he still owns one of the books that came from the library where he purchased the mirror.
It is a rare early edition, in the original Italian, of Collodi's Pinocchio. Inside the front cover is a bookplate bearing the inscription "Hazel Bartlett, Her Book." All efforts to find information about a Hazel Bartlett of Bangor have proved fruitless. Rather than solving the mystery of Harris Burdick, the discovery of the fifteenth drawing has served only to make it more perplexing. Chris Van Allsburg Providence, Rhode Island, December 21, 1995
Student Sample
Written by Alex Treadway, age 13
The Harp
Grandfather rocked slowly on the rocker, descending back and rising slowly. His dark eyes were cast down on the boy before him. The wrinkles that decorated his lips and skin were sagging. His hair ... it had turned a dark shade of silver that caught the light.
"She was beautiful... indeed she was," he quietly said over and over again.
"Who was, Grandfather?" The boy replied.
As a mere boy of only eight, he was certainly curious of a great many things. His dirt brown hair fell in a messy heap upon his head. His eyes were alight with the wonderment of a small boy.
"Her name was Seline," Grandfather said, gazing towards the window to look past the forest, towards the beyond where the rocks shimmered in the early morning light, and the water from the stream was cool as it touched the skin. The trees made a canopy with their branches in the late afternoon.
"The Harp. Every day I went down there and watched her play it her fingers gliding across the strings," Grandfather smiled, his wrinkly lips turning upward. "And she never once saw me."
The boy immediately filled with joy. "Do you think she’s still there!? Oh, let’s go see!"
Grandfather laughed, "I haven’t seen her in ages but sometimes at night I can still hear her play the harp."
Muffy, the scruffy Catahoula dog that was lying at the boy’s feet, began to walk around nervously. The boy stood up and walked to the door. "I’m going to take her for a walk, Grandfather."
Still gazing at the window, the man nodded.
The boy had never been in the woods that surrounded the house, but now that he was fumbling with the branches around him, he wished he had. Muffy was ahead, wagging her tail in excitement as she led the boy further into the forest. Suddenly she stopped. And that’s when the boy noticed where they were.
The rocks shimmered in the early morning light, the trees made a canopy with their branches.
The water from the stream looked cool, calm...perfect. Then the water started to ripple and spread apart to make way for a body emerging from the water. She had dark red hair that shimmered down her back, giving her complexion a pale look. She sat silently beside a harp that was placed neatly on a shimmering rock. Her fingers danced lightly on the strings - the beginning of an angelic song. So it’s true, he thought, it’s really true.
She turned her head gently and her soft eyes met with his.
Name: Date: Per. Title of Story: __
Caption from Harris Burdick
Setting
Characters
Problem
Resolution
Beginning
Middle
End
Teaching Demonstration Lesson
Feedback Form
What were some things you liked about the lesson?
What were some things you thought that that could’ve been done differently/ more effectively?
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What are some ways the lesson could’ve been extended?
SJVWP Summer Institute 2011
The Mysteries Within
The Craft of the Short Story
Standards:
8th Grade Writing - 2.0 Writing Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)
Students write narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive essays of at least 500-700 words in each genre. Student writing demonstrates a command of standard American English and the research, organizational, and drafting strategies outlined in Writing Standard 1.0.
Students will:
2.1 Write biographies, autobiographies, short stories, or narratives:
a. relate a clear, coherent incident, event, or situation by using well-chosen details.
b. reveal the significance of, or the writer’s attitude about, the subject.
c. employ narrative and descriptive strategies (e.g., relevant dialogue, specific action, physical/
background description, comparison/contrast).
Sequence of Activities:
1) Questions: (pair/share; whole-class question/response) What is a short story? What important elements does a short story consist of?
2) Introduction to Harris Burdick (show book, pictures, and read introduction)
3) Student sample/map (picture not given to students as an option for their stories)
4) Gallery walk (Students view pictures, select one, and write caption in their journals)
5) Story map
6) Review student sample (suggested structure – usage of dialogue, description, etc.)
7) Introductions (hook your reader with dialogue, description, an anecdote, etc.)
8) Share introductions with partners
9) Volunteers read aloud
Objectives:
Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of the short story by composing their own. They will use specific plot elements and techniques they’ve learned such as well-chosen details, physical description, dialogue, setting, conflict, character development, etc.
Rationale:
In 8th grade, students need to be able to:
- evaluate the structural elements of the plot, the plot’s development, and the way in which conflicts are (or are not) addressed and resolved (R 3.2).
- compare and contrast motivations and reactions of literary characters (R 3.3).
- analyze the relevance of the setting to the mood, tone, and meaning of the text (R 3.4).
Once a student is able to identify and analyze these specific reading standards (those listed above), they may then apply them to their own writing. Composing their own short stories will allow for creativity, while also demonstrating their knowledge of each short story element. Their finished piece must include a solid plot, an identifiable conflict, three-dimensional characters, a strong setting, a climax, and some kind of resolution. They must also include strong adjectives, adverbs, similes and/or metaphors. Coherency, structure, dialogue, and description, are also developed in this writing process and help the students become better writers (as seen in the writing standards listed on first pg).
Allowing students to use a picture with a caption to generate story ideas reinforces the fact that students don’t always need to have a story to write about before they write. Sometimes the best stories come when we allow ourselves to experiment. “Material and ideas for essays, poems, short stories, and articles will grow that way – like flowers on blank, barren walls… but you must free your writing to make it possible… think through writing rather than always before you write (Ballenger and Lane, 1996).
The reason we suggest writing from someone else’s image is that it often liberates your own imagination to take a ride on an image that didn’t come from you. It gives you practice in relinquishing control and letting the image generate material. Because it is not your image, you’ll have less need to own it or control it, and you’ll have fewer preconceptions about it. You’ll probably find yourself more receptive to allowing meaning to develop from it rather than imposing meaning on it (Elbow and Belanoff, 1989).
Supplementary Materials:
Ballenger, Bruce, and Barry Lane. Discovering the Writer Within: 40 Days to More Imaginative Writing. Ohio:
Writer’s Digest, 1996. Print.
Elbow, Peter, and Pat Belanoff. A Community of Writers: A Workshop Course in Writing. New York: McGraw-
Hill, Inc. 1989. Print.
Gallagher, Kelly. Teaching Adolescent Writers. Maine: Stenhouse Publishers, 2006. Print.
Van Allsburg. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1984. Print.
Introduction to the Portfolio Edition
of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg
In 1984, I wrote the following as an introduction to The Mysteries of Harris Budick:
I first saw the drawings in this book a year ago, in the home of a man named Peter Wenders. Though Mr. Wenders is retired now, he once worked for a children's book publisher, choosing the stories and pictures that would be turned into books.
Thirty years ago a man called at Peter Wenders's office, introducing himself as Harris Burdick. Mr. Burdick explained that he had written fourteen stories and had drawn many pictures for each one. He'd brought with him just one drawing from each story, to see if Wenders liked his work.
Peter Wenders was fascinated by the drawings. He told Burdick he would like to read the stories that went with them as soon as possible. The artist agreed to bring the stories the next morning. He left the fourteen drawings with Wenders. But he did not return the next day. Or the day after that. Harris Burdick was never heard from again. Over the years, Wenders tried to find out who Burdick was and what had happened to him, but he discovered nothing. To this day Harris Burdick remains a complete mystery.
His disappearance is not the only mystery left behind. What were the stories that went with these drawings? There are some clues. Burdick had written a title and caption for each picture. When I told Peter Wenders how difficult it was to look at the drawings and their captions without imagining a story, he smiled and left the room. He returned with a dust-covered cardboard box. Inside were dozens of stories, all inspired by the Burdick drawings. They'd been written years ago by Wender's children and their friends.
I spent the rest of my visit reading these stories. They were remarkable, some bizarre, some funny, some downright scary. In the hope that other children will be inspired by them, the Burdick drawings are reproduced here for the first time.
Over the past twelve years I have received hundreds of Burdick stories written by children and adults. These efforts show that the words and pictures of Mr. Burdick are indeed inspirational. Classroom teachers and aspiring writers have expressed their desire for larger reproductions of Mr. Burdick's pictures. To that end, this portfolio has been produced. There is, however, another reason for this edition.
Peter Wenders and I were certain that the publication of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick would lead to the discovery of information about Mr. Burdick. Ten years passed without a single clue surfacing. Then, in 1994, I received a letter from a Mr. Daniel Hirsch of North Carolina. He described himself as a dealer in antique books and shared with me the following story.
In 1963 he learned of a collection of books being offered for sale in Bangor, Maine. These books were located in the library of a grand but rundown Victorian home. Mr. Hirsch remembers learning that the owner of the house, an elderly woman, had died recently, leaving the house and its contents to the local Animal Rescue League.
Impressed with the collection he found, Mr. Hirsch purchased the entire library. This included a large mirror whose wooden frame was decorated with carved portraits of characters from Through the Looking Glass.
Two years ago, this mirror, still in the possession of Mr. Hirsch, fell from the wall of his bookshop and cracked. Removing the shards of glass, Mr. Hirsch made a remarkable discovery. Neatly concealed between the mirror and its wooden back was the drawing of the "Young Magician" that is reproduced here.
This drawing is identical in size and technique to Burdick's other pictures. Like those, it is unsigned and has a title and caption written in the margin at the bottom. The title on this piece identifies it as another picture from the story "Missing in Venice." I have no doubts regarding its authenticity.
Unfortunately, Mr. Hirsch, who has an uncanny memory for the names and locations of the books in his shop, cannot remember the details of his trip to Bangor in 1963. In fact, he is no longer certain the old Victorian house was in Bangor. However, he is certain he still owns one of the books that came from the library where he purchased the mirror.
It is a rare early edition, in the original Italian, of Collodi's Pinocchio. Inside the front cover is a bookplate bearing the inscription "Hazel Bartlett, Her Book." All efforts to find information about a Hazel Bartlett of Bangor have proved fruitless. Rather than solving the mystery of Harris Burdick, the discovery of the fifteenth drawing has served only to make it more perplexing.
Chris Van Allsburg
Providence, Rhode Island, December 21, 1995
Student Sample
Written by Alex Treadway, age 13
The Harp
Grandfather rocked slowly on the rocker, descending back and rising slowly. His dark eyes were cast down on the boy before him. The wrinkles that decorated his lips and skin were sagging. His hair ... it had turned a dark shade of silver that caught the light.
"She was beautiful... indeed she was," he quietly said over and over again.
"Who was, Grandfather?" The boy replied.
As a mere boy of only eight, he was certainly curious of a great many things. His dirt brown hair fell in a messy heap upon his head. His eyes were alight with the wonderment of a small boy.
"Her name was Seline," Grandfather said, gazing towards the window to look past the forest, towards the beyond where the rocks shimmered in the early morning light, and the water from the stream was cool as it touched the skin. The trees made a canopy with their branches in the late afternoon.
"The Harp. Every day I went down there and watched her play it her fingers gliding across the strings," Grandfather smiled, his wrinkly lips turning upward. "And she never once saw me."
The boy immediately filled with joy. "Do you think she’s still there!? Oh, let’s go see!"
Grandfather laughed, "I haven’t seen her in ages but sometimes at night I can still hear her play the harp."
Muffy, the scruffy Catahoula dog that was lying at the boy’s feet, began to walk around nervously. The boy stood up and walked to the door. "I’m going to take her for a walk, Grandfather."
Still gazing at the window, the man nodded.
The boy had never been in the woods that surrounded the house, but now that he was fumbling with the branches around him, he wished he had. Muffy was ahead, wagging her tail in excitement as she led the boy further into the forest. Suddenly she stopped. And that’s when the boy noticed where they were.
The rocks shimmered in the early morning light, the trees made a canopy with their branches.
The water from the stream looked cool, calm...perfect. Then the water started to ripple and spread apart to make way for a body emerging from the water. She had dark red hair that shimmered down her back, giving her complexion a pale look. She sat silently beside a harp that was placed neatly on a shimmering rock. Her fingers danced lightly on the strings - the beginning of an angelic song. So it’s true, he thought, it’s really true.
She turned her head gently and her soft eyes met with his.
Name: Date: Per.
Title of Story: __
Teaching Demonstration Lesson
Feedback Form